Michael Shipma
Staff Writer
After nearly a month of tough road matches, the Troy women’s tennis team returned home in style with a pair of dominant wins over in-state opponents.
The Trojans started off their weekend with a 7-0 shutout of Alabama A&M on Friday’s Senior Day, which was followed up with a 6-1 rout of Alabama State on Tuesday.
Between the two matches, Troy lost just one singles and one doubles match, resulting in a three-match win streak which erased a previous losing streak of the same length.
Against the Bulldogs, Troy never left any doubt after cruising to three wins in the doubles phase. The Trojan duos of Sanae Ohta/Nancy Karaky and Pei Ju Hseih/Maria Casas Blas won their respective matches 6-1 while Efriliya Herlina and Jiayuan Xue took down Alabama A&M’s Alyssa Williams and Beatriz Cerezo 6-2.
The singles phase was equally one-sided as the Trojans won every match in two sets.
The home team carried the momentum of that win through the weekend into a Tuesday tilt with the Hornets.
Ohta and Karaky dropped the first doubles match of the contest 6-3, but Troy’s Herlina/Xue and Blas/Hseih made up for it by winning their respective matches and the resulting doubles point.
The Trojans played six complete singles matches, which was highlighted by Karaky’s 5-7, 6-0, 10-4 victory over Alabama State’s Lea Krajcovicova.
Hseih, Xue, Ohta and Matea Mihaljevic all won their matches in two sets to secure the win, with Herlina being the only Trojan to lose her match in three sets to the Hornets’ Reka Szentes.
With the conclusion of their home schedule, the Trojans now face back-to-back conference matches this weekend in Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State. Both matches will be played in Atlanta ahead of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on April 20-23.
